His Father's Return
by JTthefanficwriter
Summary: A fanfic chapter I wrote a few years ago. I'm thinking of rewriting it and making more chapters. I want some opinions on the plot idea though to see if anybody thinks it's worth rewriting.


Deep under the surface of planet Titania once layed a small base controlled by royal followers of Andross, the crazed ape genious that had once threatened to corrupt the Lylat System. It was five years ago that Fox McCloud, leader of the mercenary group, Star Fox, had destroyed this evil ape, avenging his father whose life Andross had taken.

These followers of Andross had actually attempted to recreate him in their main base on the surface of Titania, and had succeeded. It was only one year ago when Team Star Fox learned of this. And so Fox came face to face with this new Andross and once again ridded the world of his existence. In the end, the base where Andross was recreated was competely destroyed. But its captain and several of its soldiers managed to survive by escaping to a secondary base hidden underground.

Captain Shears was indeed one strange dog. For a few years, he was known as the captain of the Titania base. It was because this base was connected to the military that nobody knew that him and his men were actually devout followers of Andross.

Once the main base and the new Andross were destroyed, Captain Shears thought it was time to put a new plan into action, and one that did not include Andross.

But after what had happened a year ago on the surface of Titania, it was better not to follow his old plan. It took this old plan's failure for Shears to realize that reviving Andross wasn't a good idea. And it wasn't because Fox McCloud had destroyed Andross and the main base either, it was because of a realization of something about Andross.

_Andross never cared about other people in his plans, _had thought Shears while he was recovering in the underground infirmary from severe injury made when Andross had crushed him, breaking nearly every bone in his body. And the thing was, Andross didn't even look at him when he did it. His large eyes were focused on his rival, Fox McCloud the whole time, and all he wanted was to remove everything else out of the way when he faced the person that had handed him his first death. Removing anything out of the way even if it meant killing the person that had lead the process of reviving him, which was of course, Captain Shears.

Shears now knew that Andross just wasn't somebody you should mess with, for he only cared about his self and what he wanted. And he wasn't about to let anybody fufill their wants by using him. So Shears decided that it would be best to follow Andross's example by fufilling his wants without letting anybody else become too important. And what Shears wanted was power, but not the same power he had wanted two years ago as Andross's main servant. This time, he wanted power of his own.

_But what should I do to obtain this power? _had thought Shears. _What new plan can I use that will have the Lylat system eating out of the palm of my hand? _And Shears almost instantly thought of Fox and his team.

There was certainly something to be said about Star Fox. They had saved the Lylat System not just once from Andross, but twice. And Team Star Fox's leader was definitely one extrordinary person to have defeated Andross in battle twice, killing him both times. Shears did not like Fox. This was obvious by how Fox had destroyed his main base and the new Andross. Though, it was a good thing Fox had destroyed Andross because it helped open up Shears's new, better plan. Shears was going to try to get Fox to join him.

Doing this would help him achieve the power over Lylat that he dreamed of. Fox would no doubt prove to be a great asset. What pilot in the galaxy would prove better for the position as his main servant? But what could he use to lure Fox over to his side? Of course!

James McCloud.

But James McCloud had supposedly died long ago by the hands of Andross. That didn't hinder Shears though. The recreation of Andross had been a success so why couldn't the recreation of James McCloud be one as well? The only problem was obtaining his DNA. There was ways to do this though.

Everytime a new citizen to the Lylat System was born, a small sample of DNA was obtained. This DNA was encoded and uploaded to a computer so that each and every citizen had their own profile that could be identified easily by their DNA on Lylat's main computer system. Profiles were used so the military could obtain information on various people when information is needed. That was how Shears had recreated Andross, by using the DNA code in his profile to be used in a cloning process. And this was exactly how Shears was going to make a new James McCloud.

_But first I must steal it_, thought Shears_. _It was quite a while though before he decided to put his plan into action. He wanted to be fully recovered from his injuries when things actually got started.

"I have a new mission for you," announced Captain Shears to his soldiers at last, now fully recovered and out of the infirmary. "I need one of you to steal the DNA code of James McCloud from Lylat's central military base."

"I'll be right on it, Captain," replied one of the soldiers almost instantly.

And that's when the plan began.

_**Somewhere in the Lylat System in the Great Fox...**_

"Looks like we've made quite a bit of money off of those last few missions," said Fox after he had finished counting the money he, Peppy, and Slippy had made. "We're definitely doing better than what we were this time last year."

"That was when Falco left, wasn't it?" said Slippy with a sad look on his face.

"It has never been quite the same since he left us to fly solo," said Peppy.

"I'll admit, it has been different not having Falco as part of the team," said Fox. "I wonder what he's doing now..."

"I've noticed you've been pretty thoughtful lately, Fox," said Peppy. "What's on your mind?"

"It's just," started Fox, his eyes focused on his boots, "I've been thinking a lot about what happened last year on Titania. It's just horrible to think that some people actually want to bring back somebody like Andross. And it's even worse to know that they can do it."

"You shouldn't worry too much about it, Fox," said Peppy. "You took care of that base on Titania. Captain Shears and his men are gone."

"Yeah, and you killed Andross too!" said Slippy.

"But me killing Andross isn't going to stop even worse things from happening," argued Fox. He knew Peppy and Slippy were just trying to comfort him, but he couldn't help but think that things were far from over. Something far worse could be beginning and he, Peppy, and Slippy would have no idea about it.

"Let's not worry about the future," said Peppy. "And if anything even worse than the rebirth of Andross _does_ occur, we'll be able to stop it. You haven't forgotten that we were declared national heroes of Lylat, have you?"

"I guess you're right," admitted Fox, thinking more positive now. "Now let's just figure out where this money will be going towards. Our Arwings could use a good repair but so could-" But Fox was cut short by a rapid session of beeps coming from the radio attached to the belt on his waist. General Pepper's voice sounded off of the transciever in a frantic tone.

"Star Fox! This is an emergency!" shouted the general through slight crackeling. "We need you to come here right away!" Then the message ended. No other details were given.

"Well, looks like we've got us a new mission," said Fox. "Slippy, change the Great Fox's coordinates to Corneria."

"Got it, Fox!" said Slippy with excitement. It had been quite a while since they had recieved a big mission from General Pepper. Slippy immediately used the Great Fox's computer to set its coordinates straight for Corneria.

"Looks like we're heading that way!" said Peppy. "It's been a few years since we've been to Corneria."

Although the Great Fox wasn't exactly speedy, ( It was a fairly big ship after all ) it wasn't much over a couple of hours before the Star Fox team arrived at Corneria's docking bay where they landed the Great Fox. General Pepper immediately ran up to greet them. Although it wasn't much of a greeting considering how desperate the situation was.

"Fox, Slippy, Peppy, good to see that you made it." He was panting, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. "This mostly concerns Fox, but we could really use all of you right now."

"Concerns me...?" said Fox, surprised. He wasn't expecting this.

"Maybe it's better that we discuss this in my office," said Pepper. "Come with me."

Fox, Peppy, and Slippy all followed General Pepper through a long hallway, taking a few turns before they reached his office. During the 5-minute-long walk to the General's office, Fox kept wondering what it was that concerned him. He was extremely anxious to find out what it was. He didn't ask the General anything about it, however, until they had arrived at his office.

"What is it that you say concerns me?" blurted out Fox before the General even had a chance to explain anything to him. He could have taken this as rude, for it was considered to be disrespectful to blurt out a question to somebody with a rank as high as his right in the middle of their office. However, he wasn't about to get angry at the person that had rid Lylat of Andross twice, for something such as that. And besides, he knew what he was about to tell Fox wasn't going to be easy on him.

"You should probably take a seat first," said General Pepper. He took a deep breath before beginning what he was about to tell Fox. "The reason this concerns you is because it has to do with your father."

"My father?" said Fox, shocked. Peppy and Slippy were surprised to hear this little tidbit as well.

"You see, all the data in your father's profile was stolen. We weren't able to catch the theif, but we _were_ able to see what he took. It may not make much sense, but the only conclusion we could come up with is that somebody is going to attempt to recreate James McCloud."

Fox, Peppy, and Slippy all stared in disbelief. First Andross, and now James McCloud. The latter was the most unbelievable of the two, however. What kind of person would want to clone somebody who had been announced legally dead years ago? And most strangely, who would want want to clone James McCloud. The only old friend of his was Peppy. And Pigma, once his friend, had been the one that had caused him to be killed by Andross by betraying him and Peppy so there was no way Pigma had anything to do with the stolen data.

Fox bowed his head and took a minute to think over what he had just heard before giving General Pepper a surprisingly calm reply. "You want somebody to track down this thief, right? Well, I'll do it."

"Fox, you don't have to do this," said Peppy with a frown. "This cloning business can get pretty ugly if used wrongly. And it's something that's completely wrong to attempt to begin with. The affects can sometimes be terrible to see."

"It doesn't matter. If it has to do with my father, then I just can't ignore it."

"Then I guess that means we're just coming with you," said Slippy.

"Slippy's right," said Peppy. "Doing this by yourself could be dangerous so we better tag along too. I can't help but see what exactly is going on either, especially since it has to do with James."

"Alright then," said Fox. "Any ideas where the thief could be, General?"

"From what we could tell, he was heading for Titania."

A horrible thought crossed Fox's mind and Peppy and Slippy's minds as well. For Titania was the exact planet where _Andross's_ clone had been born, just one year ago.


End file.
